


Home Sweet Home

by fansbyproducts (sisaat)



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alcohol, Carlos comes back home, Carlos is Sorry, Cecil is Not Okay, Cuddling on the floor, M/M, Returning Home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2367092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sisaat/pseuds/fansbyproducts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos finally finds a way back from the desert otherworld</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Sweet Home

Night Vale was just how Carlos remembered it, before Strex took over, but at the same time it wasn’t. It was more beautiful, more… home. He hadn’t realized how much he missed this place, with all its strangeness and horror. With its Secret Police lurking in the night, heads now poking out from their hiding place with surprised shout and cheerful waves. Carlos waved back. He was home.

Other than members of the Sheriff’s Secret Police, the streets seemed to be deserted. His watch claimed it was 2:36 and he supposed it must not be too far off. It was just as well. He didn’t want to be stopped on his way home. The only one he really wanted to see was Cecil. Carlos quickened his steps. He was so close to holding his boyfriend in his arms again.

He dug his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed the familiar number without really thinking about it. He wanted to hear Cecil’s voice. To tell him he had returned to Night Vale, that they’d be face-to-face in a few minutes. He didn’t stop walking while he waited for Cecil to pick up. He barely avoided running into a hooded figure in his excitement. Why had he taken this long to make it back home? Surely he could have found a way faster. Yes, there had been important Science to be done, but faced with the prospect of kissing Cecil again soon, that didn’t seem quite as important as it had at the time.

Cecil didn’t pick up his phone. He must be sleeping. It was pointless, but Carlos left a message anyway. “You’ll probably know that by the time you check your voice mails, but I’m back. I’m home, Cecil. I’m home.” He stuffed the phone back in his pocket and ran all the way to the tiny cottage they shared. No light shone inside. Carlos raced up the stairs, skipping over the treacherous third step that always tried to swallow him, and jammed his key in the keyhole with shaking fingers.

All was quiet inside the house. Carlos took off his shoes and padded across the living area to reach their bedroom door and peered into the darkness. His heart beat so fast that he though it would burst out. This being Night Vale, he felt it prudent to press a hand against his chest to keep it from doing just that.

"Cecil?"

He made his way to the bed in the dark and patted the covers to try to find his sleeping boyfriend. He wasn’t successful. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim light of the moon entering through the large window, but when they did, he saw that the bed was indeed empty. Carlos first reaction was to panic. Had something terrible happened to Cecil since the last time they spoke yesterday? Was Carlos coming home just a little too late and Night Vale had decided to take Cecil from him?

"Calm down. He probably just went out and stayed out late," Carlos chided himself.

But why wasn’t Cecil answering his phone, if he was still up? Was he mad at him? Carlos knew Cecil was getting frustrated with how little he called and how he was more interested in studying the desert than coming back home. Carlos hadn’t called earlier tonight because, well, he was busy trying to actually come home and that seemed more important. Was Cecil sulking?

Carlos took out his phone and tried calling again. To his surprise, he heard Cecil’s ring tone faintly, coming from somewhere else in the house. He stood from the bed and followed the noise down the hall.

"Cecil?" he called again.

The sound led him to his private lab. The door was partly open and in the darkness beyond, Carlos could see a dim purple glow that he was fairly certain didn’t come from any of his experiments. It moved as Cecil shifted, his sleep disturbed by the still ringing cellphone lying on the floor next to him. Carlos smiled and hung up. He didn’t know why Cecil was sleeping on the floor of his lab, but he was glad to have found him.

He took a step forward and his foot knocked a glass bottle that rolled a short distance before hitting a table leg. The strange bioluminescence of Cecil’s purple markings revealed more bottles scattered around his boyfriend’s sleeping form. There was a familiar scent in the air. Alcohol, and not the kind usually found in his lab. Carlos swallowed and hurried to Cecil’s side.

His boyfriend was curled up in a corner of the lab, wrapped up in one of the scientist’s casual lab coats like it was a blanket. Carlos pushed the bottles out of the way with a sound of clinking glass that broke the relative silence of the room otherwise filled only with the quiet buzzing of electronics. Cecil frowned and groaned in his sleep, and pulled the lab coat over his head. Carlos knelt next to him and gently shook his shoulder.

"Cecil? I’m home. Wake up."

"No," Cecil answered weakly. Carlos froze with a hand still on his shoulder. "Don’t wake me up. You’ll be gone when I wake up."

"This isn’t a dream. I’m here."

Cecil reached up, grabbed a fistful of Carlos’s desert-stained, formerly-white lab coat and pulled him down. The scientist didn’t resist and let his boyfriend clumsily wrap his arm around him.

"Don’t wake me up," Cecil begged him. "Please."

Carlos nodded, unable to find his voice. This wasn’t how he had pictured their reunion. In his mind, they had cried with joy, but instead it was guilt filling his eyes with tears. He pulled Cecil closer, rested his chin on his tousled hair and slowly traced the sinuous glowing marks climbing up the other man’s neck and cheek with his thumb. Cecil’s breathing was slowing down by the time Carlos could speak again.

"Alright. I’ll let you sleep. But I promise I’ll still be here when you wake up."

"You always say that," Cecil whispered into his collarbone.

Carlos held him a little tighter.

* * *

Carlos woke up to a sound halfway between a scream of joy and a sob. Lips that tasted of alcohol and tears pressed against his urgently and repeatedly.

"You’re here, you’re really here."

"Cecil—"

Whatever he might have said next was lost when Cecil smashed their lips together into another kiss. It was messy, wet with tears and more than a little desperate, and Carlos happily returned it. He lifted a hand to stroke Cecil’s back, but his entire body protested the movement, reminding him of why people slept in beds rather than on floors. He broke the kiss with a pained groan.

"Carlos? Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"No, just sore. Why were you sleeping on my lab’s floor anyway?" Carlos asked, trying to shift onto a more comfortable position. Cecil averted his eyes, pressed his forehead against Carlos’s shoulder and mumbled something about horoscopes. "Cecil?"

"The bed was empty without you."

"Oh, Cecil," Carlos whispered under his breath. He pressed a soft kiss on top of his boyfriend’s hair. "I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I took so long. I’m sorry I didn’t call enough. I’m sorry I got so caught up with Science. I’m sorr—"

Cecil stopped his flow of apologies with a thumb pressed against his lips. His other hand touched Carlos’s face and he stared at him with his red-rimmed eyes opened wide as if that would help him see more of Carlos.

"You’re back now. You’re here with me. Home. That’s all that matters. You’re home."

His voice broke on that last word and Carlos knew he wasn’t going to forgive himself as easily as Cecil did.

* * *

"Carlos?"

"Hm?"

"I wish I could hold you like this forever."

"Me too."

"But I really need to use the bathroom right now."

"Oh, er, of course. And I need to take a shower."

"Yes. You do."

* * *

Sitting in his recording booth, just before his show started, Cecil listened to the message one more time. Just to make sure it was real.

"You’ll probably know that by the time you check your voice mails, but I’m back. I’m home, Cecil. I’m home."

**Author's Note:**

> Reposting from tumblr. I wrote this while we wait (im)patiently for Carlos to come back to Night Vale.


End file.
